


Family Ties

by thearrowavenger (DestielHasThePhoneBox)



Series: Family Ties [1]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Superboy (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: 90s superboy, Family, Gen, Superman Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 18:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13417569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestielHasThePhoneBox/pseuds/thearrowavenger
Summary: Kara just wanted to train her nephew and keep him safe. Why did it have to be so difficult?Or: Kon-El blasted into Kara's life instead of Mon-El in season 2.





	Family Ties

“You never woulda hit me if I’d just been using my tactile telekinesis,” Kon said, making sure to place special emphasis on the words he clearly valued most. He rubbed his shoulder, where Kara had gotten a hit in past his embarrassingly weak defenses. But he was practically bouncing with energy, pointedly not floating like he preferred, after she had requested he not use his TTK for the duration of their fight.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Kara answered, shrugging. “But I shouldn’t have been able to hit you just now either way. You could have blocked that.”

“When do I get to start hitting things?” Kon whined, still rubbing at his shoulder, despite the fact that Kara was certain it couldn’t be hurting anymore. “You said this would be cool, but this is just totally lame.”

“Protecting yourself isn’t lame,” Kara reminded him, trying for gentle. Kon pouted. “And it will look cool, but only once you learn. Let’s go over that block again. This time, pay attention please.”

Kon sighed heavily, but he didn’t storm out of the room or start whining again, so she took it as a win.  


After practicing blocking for half an hour, Kon again lost interest and started drifting off.

“Hey, could we listen to some music or something?” he asked. “This is so boring.”

“If you can block Alex when she comes in here, then yeah, we can listen to music,” Kara said, hoping she could use the music as an incentive. Normally she wouldn’t even have an issue with music, but Kon had been listening to the same painfully loud club music for days, blasting it over speakers Kara hadn’t ever turned up that loud in her apartment. With his hearing, she really couldn’t understand how he could handle having it that loud all the time, but she was getting pretty tired of it.

“I can totally block her!” Kon announced, excitement clear in his voice as he started floating a foot in the air. At least he was pretty easy to bribe, even if he was apparently trying to make Supergirl go deaf. “She’s, like, totally human. This’ll be a piece of cake.”

Kara laughed and didn’t bother to disabuse that particular misunderstanding just yet.

Alex came down a few minutes later, raising a brow at Kon when he immediately started bragging about how good he was at fighting now.

“And Kara said I can listen to music when I block you,” he said, looking smug and not at all worried. “I wanna listen to Swedish House Mafia. They’re so cool!”

“Uh huh,” Alex said by way of response. “And what do I get if I get in a hit?”

Kon shrugged. “I dunno. You’re not gonna. But, like, pizza?”

“How about, if I can hit you,” she said, “you create your own Netflix account and quit abusing ours.”

“What?” Kon asked, shooting her an incredulous look and crossing his arms. “I make your Netflix account more awesome, okay. Like, what kind of nerd watches Star Trek?”

“I watch Star Trek,” Alex responded, looking more amused than irritated. It was true, though. He had been using the Danvers’ Netflix account, mercilessly ruining their queues and recommendations until the only thing Netflix thought they should watch were action movies and cheap horror flicks. Eliza had even called to demand who had lost her place in Stranger Things. 

“Nerd,” Kon responded. “But fine. I’m totally gonna be fine, and then we’re gonna blast my new playlist on the speakers in the whole building.”

“Uh, that is not—” Kara started. Alex cut her off before she could finish.

“Don’t worry, I’m going to win this bet,” Alex said.

“Uh, yeah, right,” Kon responded, rolling his eyes dramatically. “This won’t even be hard.”

He moved into the basic defense position Kara had taught him: hands fisted, one down near his side and the other covering his face, feet shoulder length apart and bent at the knee, and body turned slightly to the side from Alex.

Alex smiled, seeing the same basic position she had started Kara on, and then flew into action. Barely a second passed before she had landed a hit to Kon’s chest.

“What, that wasn’t fair!” Kon exclaimed, gaping at Alex like he couldn’t believe she was there.

“How? I didn’t do anything against any rules,” Alex responded. “Maybe you’re underestimating your opponents. Don’t think that just because you have superpowers means you’ll always be the strongest fighter out there. Even Supergirl has to work hard to beat supervillains, and she has more powers than you.”

“Yeah, but I have tactile telekinesis,” Kon said. “It means I can be as strong as I want.”

“Maybe,” Alex conceded. “We don’t know the limits of your powers yet, or if you’ll be affected by Kryptonite or other toxins.”

“Who even has Kryptonite anymore?” Kon asked, sounding more sarcastic than genuinely curious. “Superman said the DEO keeps it here, so like, whatever, right? It’s not like you’d ever attack me with it.”

Alex and Kara exchanged a look.

“Kon, you have to be more careful,” she said. “The DEO isn’t the only place with kryptonite and they’re not the only ones interested in you either.”

Kon rolled his eyes, which was apparently a habit already. Kara was beginning the wonder if he could make it through a conversation with anyone without rolling his eyes, or if it was just with her.

“Yeah, so what?” he responded. “I’m hot stuff, I already knew that. Who cares if people want me? That’s how it’s been since day one. I even have my own groupie villain, did you know that? Scavenger. He, like, pops up all the time to… I dunno, talk about spears or whatever, and use magic.”

Kara pinched the bridge of her nose and thought about how to respond. She didn’t want to bring up Cadmus, since it was just about the surest way to set Kon off, and… well, and she didn’t want him to know that Lillian Luthor was looking for him specifically. It was too many questions and too high a chance that Kon would decide to go picking fights out of sheer curiosity. She didn’t know how to impress on him what danger was when it seemed like he thought fighting crime was a fun game that he could use to get famous and make money.

“Kon, this is serious,” Kara told him, deciding to ignore his second comment for now. She stepped forward even as Alex took a physical step back from the conversation. Alex had offered to help out with Kon, and she was, but Kara was the one who named him. She was responsible for him.

“Someone could hurt you,” Kara said. “Or worse.”

“Ugh, look, SG, it’s no big,” Kon responded, voice full of frustration. As if he were the one talking to someone unreasonable. He smirked. “Seriously, I’m not that easy to hurt.”

“Everyone has a weakness, Kon,” Kara snapped. “Everyone can be hurt. And someone will find out what yours is and they will use it.”

“Ugh, what do you expect me to do, then, huh?” he demanded. “Just sit around and do nothing until you think I’m good enough? I was plenty good enough when Superman couldn’t protect Metropolis. And I’m plenty good enough now.”

“Kon, that’s not what I’m saying,” Kara argued. She looked at Alex, who had managed to blend into the wall in her government agent way, and smoothed her face out so that Kon wouldn’t think she was angry, even if she kind of was. “You are good enough. You’re too good to throw your life away because you didn’t have a little patience to train for a while.”

“I don’t need to be patient!” Kon exclaimed, his lips twisting with anger and his hands flying around his face. “I’ve been just fine for months without you!”

With that, he leapt into the air and sped out of the training room.

“Crap.” Kara put her face into her hands and leaned against the wall. “I really messed that up.”

“No,” Alex responded, moving closer to Kara to put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “It would have been pretty hard to do much better with him.”

“I just. I… I should go talk to him,” Kara said. “He’s just so young.”

Alex snorted. “Yeah, and also a teenager.”

“I don’t think just being a teenager is the issue here,” Kara responded. She brushed off Alex’s hand and turned to face her sister. “I don’t know how to get through to him. I don’t know how to tell a kid who was born six months ago that he can die If he’s not careful. And—and I don’t know how to tell him that Cadmus is after him specifically.”

“Maybe we should consider telling him the truth,” Alex said, tone even and not betraying whether she really thought that was a good idea.

“You know we can’t,” Kara said, knowing it was true and hating herself for it. “He’s not… It wouldn’t be a good idea. He’s too volatile and too naïve. I mean, look at who he’s already put his trust in?”

“You?” Alex asked, smiling in the way that said she knew that that wasn’t what Kara meant.

“Besides me,” Kara said, not admitting that she wasn’t so sure that was even true. Kon had agreed to stay in her apartment while he was in National City, but only after seeing the sorts of apartment his “talent manager”, Rex, had found that would accept cash payments. “I mean, that adult woman he thought he was dating? Rex? Kon trusts everyone who tells him to trust them. What if Lillian Luthor makes an offer? What if she tells him they’re family?”

“Then he’ll have real family to turn to first,” Alex responded. “He’ll have you. And me. All of us.”

Before she even consciously thought about doing it, Kara had wrapped her arms around her sister. Alex immediately leaned into the hug and pulled Kara in. It was the same hug they had been sharing for years, the same one that always made her feel safe and protected in her big sister’s arms.

“Thanks,” she said, speaking into Alex’s shoulder.

“Of course, Kara,” Alex said, voice quiet and close to Kara’s ear. “You’re my sister. Your family is my family.”

+++

Kon was sitting on the roof of the CatCo building, knees tucked under his chin, his feelings written clearly on his face. His brow was wrinkled and his lips pulled thin and tight while he stared straight ahead, not bothering to acknowledge whether he was aware of Kara’s arrival. Kara drifted down slowly, landing next to him and sitting down so that they weren’t quite touching.

“I’m not trying to be hard on you,” Kara said.

“Then why?” Kon asked, his voice turning bitter and confused.

“I’m worried about you,” she said.

“Is it because I don’t have the same powers as you and Superman?”

“What—no! I don’t—no,” Kara responded, surprised by the question. Kon hadn’t ever mentioned their differing powers, except to brag about his TTK. “No, it has nothing to do with that.”

“Yeah, but like…” Kon trailed off.

“What’s wrong, Kon?” she asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” he mumbled. “But why are my powers different? I’m Superman’s clone. Shouldn’t I have the same powers?” 

Kara didn’t know how to respond to that without admitting that she knew he wasn’t just Kal’s clone.

“Your powers are just as good,” she said.

“I know they’re good,” Kon scoffed. “But why are they different? Why am I different? I should be just like Superman. I’m supposed to be Superman.”

Kara froze, thinking back to the days after Lex Luthor nearly killed her cousin and Kon came onto the scene with their family crest on his chest. He had called himself Superman then, blissfully unaware of why announcing that he was Superman right after Superman’s supposed death wasn’t a popular move. It hadn’t entirely occurred to her that he might have wanted it still after he traded in that name for Superboy.

“You’re you, Kon,” she said. “You aren’t Superman and that’s okay. More than okay. You don’t want to be someone else.”

Kon didn’t respond immediately, keeping his eyes trained into the distance.

“I’m me, but I’m also a clone,” he said. “So where are my other super powers? Why don’t I have heat vision? Or freeze breath?”

“I… I don’t know,” Kara lied. “I don’t know, Kon. Maybe it was, uh, something to do with the cloning process.”

A heavy sigh, and then Kon was leaning into Kara’s side and resting his head on her shoulder. She couldn’t bring herself to look at him, despite how glad she was that he had apparently forgiven her. She couldn’t tell him about his connection to Lex Luthor. He needed to be more grounded first, needed to be certain that he had other family, real family who cared about him and didn’t see him as a weapon to be deployed against enemies.

She would tell him. Just, not yet.


End file.
